The guys you use as examples weren’t taking over undefeated, or NC programs. In most cases, they were building from humble beginnings. .500 for them isn’t a fair comparison.
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Frank Solich
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I would agree with you if their sub-par seasons were in the first 2-3 years, but they had struggles even in the middle of their runs.
Look, it’s your story and you can play with it all you like. But spinning that, trying to mirror someone taking over a 5 time NC and model of consistency, with programs that were broken down afterthoughts, I think you’re yanking that all alone.
Bryant had 3 national championships under his belt already at Alabama when he had back-to-back seasons of 6-5 and 6-5-1.
Paterno was just two years removed from an undefeated national championship season when Penn State went 5-6 in 1988.
Bobby Bowden had only one season better than 9 wins in his final 9 seasons.
Bud Wilkinson won 13 consecutive conference titles at Oklahoma, then dropped to 3-6-1 and 5-5 in the next two seasons.
Bob Devaney won 4 consecutive conference titles then had back-to-back 6-4 seasons.
Bo Schembechler had won or tied for 10 conference championships at Michigan when he went 6-6 in 1984.
Woody Hayes had two national championships under his belt at Ohio State when he went 3-5-1 in 1959. He had two more national championships to his credit when he went 6-4 in 1971.
These weren't "broken down afterthought" programs. These were legendary, Hall of Fame coaches that struggled even when things should have been humming along following championship runs.
We are in agreement here, FAD Pederson was a terrible leader. He screwed up by firing Frank and then waiting for the season to end at the Cowboys where he was to awaken to the real world.
Nice posts and it just gives a great example of what you saw at NU for success over a very long period of time. BD, TO, and then FS never won less than 9 games between 1968 and 2002. That is 42 straight years. In 2003, after Solich was fired everyone thought it was so easy to win and win big. As we know now going on 15 years it is not that easy.
FS was/is not as good a HC as TO was, but he was way better than what we saw from 2004-2017.
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Yes and yes
But this doesn't mean he should've been TO's successor.
I do think TO hamstrung FS by not letting (strongly encouraging) him make changes to the coaching staff. And with the coaching changes he made in 2001 he probably should've gotten several more years to make it work.
No, probably not, but TO thought he owed it to him, I think. He wasn’t ready because Osborne wasn’t delagator. Devaney was and let TO run the offense. Because of this he was better prepared to take over.
I don’t think it was because he didn’t trust FS it was because that is what he was
What is your opinion of a coach that only wins 9 of 12 games, with a team that includes the Heisman Trophy winner and the Outland Trophy winner?
I honestly thought FS had a sharp enough of a football mind but he needed to initially fortify his staf with recruiters because he wasn't going to get the guys TO could by walking into their living room.
I also think his ego got the best of him ... he wasn't the offensive innovator that TO was and for him to think he could appoint himself O-Coordinator and call the plays from the field like TO did was also wrong.
As I said after he re-did his staff in 2002 he should been given a few more years to prove he could do it Recruiting had suffered and his first four years were wins in large part to the athletes he inherited.
Frank succeeded with another coaches players, and failed to continue recruiting in similar fashion. Frank’s failure was similar in timing to BD, but Bob’s success and subsequent struggles wasn’t taking a team that had won 9+ games for 28 of the last 30 years. Schembechler hit the skids similarly to Bowden late in their tenure when neither were committed to coaching. Bo was more interested in being an AD than continuing to coach. And not getting too deeply into The Bear’s issues, he wasn’t setting the world on fire the couple of years prior to those back to back poor years, and most of that can be tied to Bama being one of the last schools not recruiting black players. The year following the 6-5s, they had stud players and were back in the mix.
You can try and downplay Frank’s flop, but he wasn’t creating the system, he’d been taught in it and failed to manage it.
I think promoting FS out of a job would have been the best way to handle that.
Alternatively, coaching up FS on how to close on recruits would have been a great help, as well.
Maybe we should schedule a game with the Bobcats.
Also, true.
Honestly I wouldn't have minded if Frank got more, but you're describing a lot of guys who earned the right to have those .500 seasons. You're talking about guys with 10 conference championships, undefeated national championships, etc. Frank didn't really match most of these resumes at the time.
